Larry Williams’ family started Otis Technology almost 40 years ago. The company produces gun care products.

“I started out at about 12-years-old, rebuilding machinery or doing something for the company and grew up in it,” Williams said.

Williams became CEO about four years ago. He led the company through the pandemic, including when they produced personal protective equipment.

“What it did was resonate this company to get back to a cause, come back from being shut down for two weeks, and give our employees a cause to come back, not only for what they were doing in the past that they felt good about, but even a higher magnitude to say, ‘I can help in this pandemic in some way’,” Williams said.

During that time, Otis Technology made multiple PPE donations. Williams said it was a "treadmill venture," not really a money-making one.

As the demand for PPE dropped, Otis Technology lightened up on its production, repurposing the machinery they bought to help with making PPE to use for their gun care products.

But with issues such as rising fuel prices and inflation on many things, company leaders are facing some new challenges.

“How do you raise costs without too much without losing customers, but also absorb the increase in whether it be labor, raw materials, energy costs,” Williams said.

Another change: a new CEO. Williams is welcoming in Bill Kleftis.

“I’m just honored to be part of that team now and to be able to lead the team into maybe new areas that haven’t been served before while still maintaining a lot of the same characteristics that Otis has built and been successful on over the last almost 40 years,” Kleftis said.

Kleftis said Otis Technology will step up to help the community again should there be another pandemic or similar situation.

“I absolutely believe that culturally we, it’s established that we could perform if that were required in the future,” Kleftis said.

“It really resonated us to rise to a cause that was greater than us,” Williams said.

Kleftis said he wants to continue to build on what Otis Technology has and hopes for expansion.